My take on the tri-color heritage badge

Hello Everyone!

Been a while since i posted!

i have been asked by a few people about the lights that i put on my 22 Pro/heritage grille and i figured i would share what it took to make the lights that i put on mine.



TOOLS:
you will need a soldering iron, solder, a heat gun or hair dryer, some screw drivers, a volt meter, drill, drill bits, pliers, side cutters, wire crimper

LEDS:
These LED's are flexible, you can literally tie them in a knot.
I used LED Edison bulb filaments that i ordered from aliexpress, search for "LED Edison bulb filament" the ones i got were 100 - 110 mm long(4-4.3 inches), you can use shorter if you don't want a very big light, if you want it to be more subtle, just remember 25.4mm in an inch.

I have checked and it looks like some are now available to buy on Amazon, they weren't when i did all of this, on amazon type in "flexible led filament 3v"
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=flexible+led+filament+3v&ref=nb_sb_noss


I used 1 red, and 2 warm white, i have not found anyone that makes one of these in orange at all.

PARTS:

Double sided tape (VHB Tape)

4inch long zip ties, the small ones

1 CR2032 3v button cell battery, to test LED's


Assortment of wiring connectors


OPTIONAL: go to friendly local home improvement store and see if you can buy a single, or small pack of (wago style) lever connectors, can make wiring easier


I got some clear heat shrink tubing from amazon, 1/4in in size,
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=clear+heat+shrink+tubing&ref=nb_sb_noss

Orange RIT dye, has to be DYE MORE synthetic that is good for plastics
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=orange+rit+dyemore&ref=nb_sb_noss

DC to DC adjustable step down converter AKA "buck converter"
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=LM2596&ref=nb_sb_noss

Fuse Tap


22AWG wire in red and black, this is what i used specifically, as it was cheap and you get a bunch
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088RC5ZT3?ie=UTF8


small plastic electronics project box to put the buck converter in, the one i got was 4in long x 2.5in wide x 2in tall
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=project+box&ref=nb_sb_noss

cable gland for project box to stick the wires through, or drill a hole and use silicone
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=cable+gland&ref=nb_sb_noss


TEST:

Once you get your LED's, first step is to test them and mark which side is positive, the listings will tell you which side is supposed to be which, but i got several where the positive and negative were backwards, simply take your LED and touch your ends on each side of the CR2032 battery and if doesn't light up, try it the other way, then mark your positive with a sharpie or similar, this will also allow you to see just how bright they are.

MAKE:

Now that you have all of your LED's tested and marked, you can solder on the wires to the ends. be sure to leave yourself PLENTY of extra wire, so you can route them, and run them to wherever you may mount the project box.

if you have a set of "helping hands" cover the alligator clips in some heat shrink to keep from damaging the LED strip

for the red, solder the wires on it, and put the heat shrink tubing on and shrink it with heat gun or hair dryer, Don't use a lighter as it will discolor the heat shrink from the flames

for the yellow, same as the red, the warm white filaments are already pretty yellow

the orange is where the dye comes in, i could not, and still can't find anyone selling one of those led filaments in orange.

Take the dye, mix it with some water, and heat it up, now do not heat it to the temperature to where it would shrink the tubing, but it still needs to be pretty warm, I put the tubing in the dye and let it sit until the water got cold, i did this 2x and i pulled it out and it was a good orange. rinse off any excess in the sink. - you can do this several times to get the orange you want
i used some compressed air in a can to blow out the inside of mine, you can just blow most of the water by mouth if you wish, but let it dry thoroughly if you do

then i repeated what i did for the other 2 previously by soldering the wires on the ends and then putting the tubing on and shrinking it.

you should now have all 3 filaments with wire and heat shrink on them.

MOUNT:

This could be done in any number of ways you choose, drilling, gluing, silicone, make a bracket etc..

What i did was simply drill 2 holes for each filament in the grille on the slat piece, i drilled them just barely big enough that they have a very tight fit around the heat shrink, i then secured them on the backside with a couple of small 4in zip ties so they don't pull back through.

i have went through plenty of "touch" carwashes, and mine are still securely attached

WIRING:

you can do this in 2 ways, Series or Parallel (forgive my MS Paint drawing)


If you wire in parallel, if 1 LED strip goes bad, only that one will be off
If you wire in series, if 1 LED strip goes bad, they will all be off

Depending on which way you choose to wire, will also be how you will have to set your buck converter, Parallel, set converter for 3ish volts, Series set converter for 9-9.5ish volts.
Parallel would be best choice to wire.

BUCK CONVERTER:

You will need to solder wires to the IN+ and IN- on the converter, after that you will need to hook it to your vehicles battery or a 12v DC power source, using your voltmeter attached to the OUT+ and OUT- of the converter, take and adjust the screw to lower the voltage that is being output, Parallel set it to 2.5V, Series to 8.5V, temporarily attach one or more of the LED's to to the converter and then adjust it to your desired brightness.

WARNING: Overvolting of LED's to make them very bright will damage and reduce the life of the LED's
That being said, i would probably not go much past 3.2V or 9.4V

Once you have set to your desired level, solder a small length of wire to the OUT pads on the converter

FINISH:

Use your fuse tap to find either A. a fuse that only gets powered when the lights come on, or B. a fuse that is powered when the ignition is turned on, if you don't mind the lights being on whenever the truck is on, i do not know what these may be, as i have mine wired up with a wireless remote that's hooked directly to the battery.

Take your project box and drill a hole for either your wires to go through, or to mount your cable gland(s) in, pass your wires through and then begin to terminate them, if you do everything while taking your time, you can get all of your wire splices to end up inside of the project box where they will be secured and wont get moisture in them.

on the buck converter, IN is from the fuse and ground, OUT is to your lights power and ground

mount your box wherever you like, I used double sided tape, run the power to the fuse tap and and the other to a body ground or the battery

enjoy your handy work!


So, if you took the time to read this, Thanks
if you find anything that is hard to understand, or if i simply skipped something let me know and ill see if i can rewrite it or add it

 

Nice write up!!!

 

Nice job.

Do you have a closer picture of the letters with the lights off?

 

The TOYOTA was done differently, those are actually held on with stainless jewelry wire, the wire is very thin and is not noticeable, it also uses 15 separate LED lights

 

Very nice! You are the Tundras.com member of the day!

 

Deserves a BJ with a glow in the dark light !

 

Great write up, Sir. Now I’m trying to think what else I can do…